Keeping with the holiday spirit of giving, I’ve got a quickie second post for the evening. This one’s a follow-up from a previous write-up of goth-rock legends Bauhaus, who recently completed a trio of reunion shows at the Hollywood Palladium. My prior post featured the first of the three nights on 11.03.19, which you can view here. This time around, it’s the last of the three performances, again at the Palladium on 12.01.19.
Now, I’m not going to make a big event out of this one, even though this apparently final show is totally worthy of the best damn review I could conjure. But I also don’t want to append this finale of sorts to a forty-plus year career as a mere update to said earlier post. I figured it deserved it’s own space and thoughts … just not one fully full-on, since I’ve already been there and done that.
That said, I wanted to feature a couple of tunes that didn’t make night one’s setlist, but thankfully made the cut on the final night. And as I keep saying, final does seem to be the way of it. Even frontman Peter Murphy stated something about the last time they’ll ever be playing together, which you can hear below at the outset of their surprise encore cover of Brian Eno’s “Third Uncle.” That’s one they haven’t played live since ’98, so I’d call that going out in absolute and definitive style.
Bauhaus perform “Third Uncle” at their final reunion show at the Hollywood Palladium on 12.01.19.
Bauhaus also played a gloriously intense rendition of “The Passion of Lovers,” one of my all-time favs from the ’81 album “Mask.” I heard this track made the second night’s setlist, which of course, I didn’t attend. So I was hopeful it would stick around for the final show. And thankfully, it did.
Funny thing is I almost didn’t go to this last show. I certainly didn’t have tickets, since it was obviously sold out long before. But night one was so damn good that it felt pretty much mandatory for me to return for the end. And thankfully, resale tickets were somehow reasonably priced.
As you’ll see below, Murphy gets up close and personal on “The Passion of Lovers,” which let’s us all know that he still gives a shit.
Bauhaus perform “The Passion of Lovers” at their final reunion show at the Hollywood Palladium on 12.01.19.
I remain hopeful that Bauhaus will eventually do one final victory lap tour to put a nail in it. But if they don’t, I’m happy to say that they ended with a fiery hell of a trio of brilliant performances. I caught two of the three, so I’m good.
But I’d love for the rest of the world to be able to experience one of the original alternative post-punk, goth rock, dub-minded, glam-slammed acts of the last four decades. I mean, a lot of the great edgy stuff from today’s indie and alternative scene is because of these guys. So respect.
I’m skipping the setlist this time, since it’s essentially the same as night one, minus “Kick in the Eye,” and the addition of these two gems I’ve included here. Again, you can catch that embed and accompanying media and info on my previous post.
Until the next time …
Bauhaus:
Peter Murphy:
